Boston Camera Club
Encyclopedia
The Boston Camera Club is the primary amateur photographic organization in the immediate vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1881, it offers activities of interest to amateur photographers. It meets six times monthly and is open to the public.
was introduced publicly in 1839. For some decades practice was limited largely to professionals because it involved laborious wet-plate processes.
Amateur photography in the United States received a major impetus in 1880 when Eastman Kodak
introduced dry plate
s--glass plates
with dried emulsion that were easier to handle than wet plates. In 1888, Kodak introduced flexible roll medium (first paper and soon film
) and third-party processing
. These innovations brought photography to the masses.
Camera club photography typically used glass plates until the early 20th century, when the technical and artistic capabilities of film could approach that of glass. Outside processing was typically not permitted in clubs until the color photography
era.
The club was founded by F. H. Blair, James M. Codman, W. C. Greenough, A. P. Howard, Lucius L. Hubbard, Frederick Ober, and John H. Thurston, among whom Thurston had the most influential role. At first, temporary officers were elected.
The seven men were joined on November 18, 1881 by James F. Babcock (1844–1897), William T. Brigham, Wilfred A. French and William A. Hovey, at which time permanent officers were elected: Brigham president, Babcock vice president, and French secretary and treasurer.
The club first met temporarily at the offices of the Boston Sunday Budget, then regularly at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(then in Boston).
The club had eight rooms:
The club occupied 50 Bromfield Street until 1924.
During this period the club was kept alive by the financial and other efforts of Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951), Phineas Hubbard (club president from at least 1908-1913), Horace A. Latimer (1860–1931) and club founder John Thurston. Relinquishing 50 Bromfield Street in 1924, the club met for some years at Boston Young Men's Christian Union
(YMCU).
, Boston with part of Horace Latimer's bequest. The club occupied three floors, which included a large and small exhibition gallery, library and kitchen.
Membership in the club grew again, reaching 286 members in 1946. In that year, the club decided for tax purposes to sell its 351A building but remain in the building as a lessee.
Growth continued, reaching 555 in 1959 — 492 regular, 51 associate, and 4 honorary members — a level the club maintained for some two decades. Besides post-war prosperity, the growth is attributable to the introduction of 35mm film
by Kodak in the 1930s, and the single lens reflex (SLR) 35mm camera by Nikon
, Pentax
and others in the 1960s.
. In 1997 it moved to its second and current Brookline location.
In the 1980s and 1990s membership again declined dramatically, a trend attributable to camera automation (for example autofocus
and programmed exposure
, which reduced the need for camera instruction), consumer video, and other factors.
Since 2000 membership has increased again to about 150 today, due in large part to the club's emphasis on digital photography
.
Prominent club members have included Emma J. Fitz; Maine photographic pioneer Emma D. Sewall (1836–1919); two collaborators of Alexander Graham Bell
, Prof. Charles R. Cross (1848–1921) and camera shutter
inventor Francis Blake, Jr.
(1850–1913); painter Sarah Jane Eddy (1851–1945); astronomers Percival Lowell
(1855–1916) and William Henry Pickering
(1858–1938); painter, photographer and Boston arts patron Sarah Choate Sears
(1858–1935); Wilfred A. French, publisher and editor of Photo-Era; electric car manufacturer George Edward Cabot (1861–1946); photographer and publisher Fred Holland Day (1864–1933); photographic author and publisher Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951); Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial
sculptor Leonard Craske (1882–1950); photographic educator Adolf Fassbender (1884–1980); painter Emil Gruppé
(1896–1978); post-Secessionist photographer and watercolorist Eleanor Parke Custis (1897–1983); and inventor of the photographic strobe
Harold E. Edgerton
(1903–1990).
of the Boston Camera Club is long and somewhat complex, with the club participating in four categories of exhibitions.
First, the club has held numerous exhibitions by its members, sometimes ambitious. In the 1890s, it engaged in a noted series of joint exhibitions with other clubs. Until perhaps the mid-20th century, it mounted exhibitions by noted outside photographers. And for half the 20th century it hosted an annual international photographic salon.
, an unusually large show of some 700 photographic prints. Annual member group shows were also being held around 1888 and continued for some years.
In 1892 club members exhibited in the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
's triennial exhibition.
In the club's seventh and tenth member exhibitions in 1895 and 1898, Emma Sewall received top award. Sarah Jane Eddy and painter and Photo-Secession member Sarah Choate Sears
were also in the 1898 show.
In 1900 the club held an exhibition by Fred Holland Day. In 1904 it exhibited at Day's Boston studios. Also that year the club helped organize, and exhibited in, a photograph exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
(the St. Louis World's Fair).
Photographic journal Photo-Era called the club's 1910 annual show its "best for many years".
In the first Joint Exhibition in New York in 1887, Joseph Prince Loud (club president 1897-1901) and Horace Latimer received the Boston club's only diplomas. In the third Joint Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1889, Boston was represented by Wilfred A. French, Horace Latimer (the club's only award winner), and William Garrison Reed.
Beginning with the fourth Joint Exhibition in New York in 1891, collaborative preparation ended and each club individually ran the exhibit in the city in which it was held. In the 1891 Exhibition, Latimer exhibited the most prints from the Boston club.
The fifth Joint Exhibition, held at the Boston Art Club
in 1892, included 18 prints by Alfred Stieglitz
(1864–1946) and 45 by Boston member Francis Blake, Jr.
Of the sixth Joint Exhibition in Philadelpha in 1893, Stieglitz said, "It was, without doubt, the finest exhibition of photographs ever held in the United States, and probably was but once excelled in any country."
After the seventh Joint Exhibition in 1894, the Boston Camera Club withdrew from the Joint Exhibitions, citing lack of manpower. Club exhibition activities for the next few years are now unknown. In the club's difficult years of the 1910s and 1920s there were probably no exhibitions.
In 1953 the salon was renamed the Boston International Exhibition of Photography (although informally it continued to be called the Boston Salon). Also that year, the Frank R. Fraprie Memorial Medal was created in recognition of Fraprie's role, along with Latimer, in helping keep the club alive in the 1910s and 1920s.
With entries heretofore limited to black-and-white
prints, starting in 1954 color slide entries were also accepted. From 1959 color prints were admitted as well. The 43rd and last exhibition, comprising color slides only, was held in 1981 as part of the club's 100th anniversary.
In discontinuing the annual exhibition, the club again cited lack of manpower, this time due to growth. While some hundreds of entries were received annually in the 1930s, the 1981 exhibition required a man-year of labor to process over 3,000 submissions.
Judges in the exhibition's 50 years included Cecil B. Atwater (1886–1981, and club president from 1942 to at least 1944), A. Aubrey Bodine
(1906–1960), Leonard Craske, Eleanor Parke Custis, Franklin I. Jordan (1876–1956), Adolf Fassbender (1884–1980), L. Whitney Standish (b. 1919), John H. Vondell (d. circa 1967), John W. Doscher (d. after 1971) and Henry F. Weisenburger.
Entrants included Croatian photographer Tošo Dabac
in 1937; Bodine (who won the Fraprie medal in 1953, 1955 and 1959); 1940s pictorialist Rowena Fruth (1896–1983); Hong Kong photographic prodigy, actor and director Fan Ho (1937–) (who first entered in 1954 at age 17); Wellington Lee (who competed from 1950–1981); and Mexican director José Lorenzo Zakany Almada (who won the Boston Camera Club Medal in 1968).
(1830–1901) circa 1890; Alfred Stieglitz
(1864–1946); 150 photographs by Gertrude Käsebier
(1852–1934) in 1896; Frances Benjamin Johnston
(1864–1952) in 1899; Clarence White
(1871–1925) in 1899 (organized and hung by Fred Holland Day); and Rudolph Dührkoop (1848–1918).
In 1907 there were exhibitions by C. F. Clarke, Wendell G. Corthell, Frederick Haven Pratt and Civil War photographs by Capt. D. Eldredge.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, U.S. camera clubs engaged in reciprocal exhibitions of each other's work. For example, in 1908 the Boston club exhibited works from the Buffalo Camera Club, the Capitol Camera Club of Washington DC, and the Portland (Maine) Camera Club.
An exhibition by Edward Weston
(1886–1958) was held in 1940; Paul Gittings, Sr. in 1950; and work from 1843–1848 of David Octavius Hill
(1802–1870) in 1953.
(1993), Griffin Museum of Photography (1997), Hynes Convention Center
(2004) and elsewhere.
In 1890 club member and camera shutter
pioneer Francis Blake, Jr.
read an important paper on shutters to the club. In 1895, member Owen A. Eames presented his Eames Animatoscope, an early motion picture device. In 1897, Friedrich von Voigtländer, head of the Austrian optical firm
, spoke to the club. In 1904, prominent photographer Fred Holland Day presented the paper for which he was well known, "Is Photography a Fine Art?"
There were numerous other lecturers in the club's early years.
Records of club speakers for the mid-20th century have not been studied. Late 20th century presenters included Marie Cosindas
(1980s), John Sexton
(1994) and Frans Lanting
(1997).
Boston-area professionals such as staff photographers of The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald
and instructors in Boston's photography colleges have long been regular club presenters and competition judges.
During the 1890s club members pursued stereoscopy
. Lantern slides, the forerunner of 20th century color slides, were a popular medium for visual presentation. The club also undertook field trips, as it does today.
In the 1940s the club was active in "entertainment and instruction of disabled veterans of World War II ... sponsor[ing] a camera club at one of the large Army convalescent hospitals nearby".
In the 1950s and 1960s the club had a movie
group and owned a Bell & Howell
movie projector.
Inventor and club vice president Francis Blake, Jr.
(1850–1913) whose 1877 microphone improved telephone communication was a camera shutter pioneer who achieved exposure times of 1/2,000 second by 1890.
William Henry Pickering
(1858–1938), who discovered Saturn's moon Phoebe
and advanced the cause of women in astronomy, was a noted astrophotographer
.
Sarah Choate Sears
(1858–1935) was named a Member of the Photo-Secession
by Alfred Stieglitz
. In 1899 she had a solo exhibition at the club that included a portrait of Julia Ward Howe
, and showed at the second Boston Arts and Crafts Exhibition.
Three club members were well-known authors and publishers. The club's first secretary and treasurer, Wilfred A. French, was editor and publisher of Photo-Era. Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951), one of the best-known photographic publishers in the U.S., was a prolific author. Franklin I. "Pop" Jordan (1876–1956) was a photographic author and editor.
Adolf "Papa" Fassbender (1884–1980), the German-born New York educator called a "one-man photographic institution", helped train thousands in photography over a career of 72 years.
In 1896 a print by Horace Latimer (1860–1931) was in an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution
. Two photographs by Latimer were published in Camera Notes
, the official publication of The Camera Club of New York
.
In 1939 Arthur Hammond (1880–1962) won top prize from organizers of the New York World's Fair
for his photo of the Fair's Trylon and Perisphere.
Late honorary members include late-19th century art lecturer Antonie Stölle and Cape Ann, Massachusetts artist, photographer and travel writer Samuel V. Chamberlain (1895–1975).
Inventor of the photographic strobe
Harold E. "Doc" Edgerton
(1903–1990) took the well-known Life
magazine photographs of a bullet penetrating an apple and an impact crown of milk droplets. Less known are his night aerial strobe work in World War II, co-founding of defense contractor EG&G
, and undersea explorations with Jacques Cousteau.
Arthur Griffin (1903–2001) was the best-known photographer of New England scenes in the mid-20th century. H. Bradford Washburn, Jr.
(1910–2007) was a noted mountaineer, aerial photographer and founder of the Boston Museum of Science.
Current honorary member Lou Jones (1945–) is a Boston-based commercial, Olympic Games
and jazz photographer, photojournalist
and educator whose books include Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row (1996).
(FPSA). Frank Fraprie and Allen G. Stimson (d. 1996) were Honorary Fellows.
Atwater, Doscher, Fassbender, Green, Hammond, Jordan and Yee have been Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society
(FRPS) of Great Britain. Fraprie was Honorary Fellow.
Roydon (Roy) Burke (1901–1993) was, and Henry F. Weisenburger is, a Master Member of the New England Camera Club Council (NECCC).
As professional photographers, Arthur Griffin and Lou Jones have belonged to such groups as the American Society of Media Photographers
(Griffin charter member, Jones board of directors).
has major holdings of work of two Boston Camera Club members. "Photographs of middle class life in Boston, 1890s-1910s" is a collection of 523 photographs by Charles Henry Currier. The Library also holds the largest share of photographs of Fred Holland Day.
There are substantial institutional holdings of Francis Blake, Jr., Eleanor Parke Custis, Harold E. Edgerton, Adolf Fassbender, Arthur Griffin (by his Griffin Museum of Photography), Emil Gruppé
, L. Whitney Standish, H. Bradford Washburn
, and others.
Activities range from beginner to advanced, and comprise digital photography
, education, print competitions (both digital and darkroom
), live portrait shoots and field trips. Outside speakers and competition judges are frequently invited.
The club communicates through its Web site and newsletter, The Reflector, launched in 1938 and published electronically.
The Boston Camera Club is a member of the New England Camera Club Council (NECCC) and Photographic Society of America
(PSA), through both of which it engages in inter-club competition.
The Boston Camera Club's sister club is the Cairns Photographic Society, Queensland, Australia, with which it holds competitions and other activities.
History
PhotographyPhotography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
was introduced publicly in 1839. For some decades practice was limited largely to professionals because it involved laborious wet-plate processes.
Amateur photography in the United States received a major impetus in 1880 when Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....
introduced dry plate
Dry plate
Dry plate, also known as gelatin process, is an improved type of photographic plate. It was invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871, and by 1879 it was so well introduced that the first dry plate factory had been established...
s--glass plates
Photographic plate
Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile...
with dried emulsion that were easier to handle than wet plates. In 1888, Kodak introduced flexible roll medium (first paper and soon film
Photographic film
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...
) and third-party processing
Photographic processing
Photographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image...
. These innovations brought photography to the masses.
Camera club photography typically used glass plates until the early 20th century, when the technical and artistic capabilities of film could approach that of glass. Outside processing was typically not permitted in clubs until the color photography
Color photography
Color photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors, which are traditionally produced chemically during the photographic processing phase...
era.
Boston Society of Amateur Photographers (1881)
The club known today as the Boston Camera Club was founded October 7, 1881 in Boston as the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers, thereby making it the second-oldest continuously extant amateur camera club in the United States.The club was founded by F. H. Blair, James M. Codman, W. C. Greenough, A. P. Howard, Lucius L. Hubbard, Frederick Ober, and John H. Thurston, among whom Thurston had the most influential role. At first, temporary officers were elected.
The seven men were joined on November 18, 1881 by James F. Babcock (1844–1897), William T. Brigham, Wilfred A. French and William A. Hovey, at which time permanent officers were elected: Brigham president, Babcock vice president, and French secretary and treasurer.
The club first met temporarily at the offices of the Boston Sunday Budget, then regularly at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(then in Boston).
Boston Camera Club (1886)
As amateur photography in the United States became more widespread, in 1886 the club changed its name to the Boston Camera Club. On April 6, 1887, it incorporated in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under the new name, stating as its purpose the promotion of "the knowedge of photography in all its branches and the promotion of social intercourse among the amateur photographers of Boston and vicinity".50 Bromfield Street (1886–1924)
In 1886, the year it became the Boston Camera Club, the club established headquarters at 50 Bromfield Street, Boston. The address may have been selected due to its being the place of business of both club founder John H. Thurston and member Charles Henry Currier (1851–1938).The club had eight rooms:
- "There is a well-selected library ...; a large exhibition gallery ...; a studio ... fitted with screens, cameras, and 2 of the finest DallmeyerJohn Henry DallmeyerJohn Henry Dallmeyer , Anglo-German optician, was born at Loxten, Westphalia, the son of a landowner.On leaving school at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an Osnabrück optician, and in 1851 he came to London, where he obtained work with an optician, W Hewitt, who shortly afterwards, with...
portrait lenses, also a fine double stereopticonStereoscopyStereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
; an enlarging room, with apparatus for making bromide enlargementsEnlargerAn enlarger is a specialized transparency projector used to produce photographic prints from film or glass negatives using the gelatin silver process, or from transparencies.-Construction:...
, enlarged negativesNegative (photography)In photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film for 35 mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic or cellulose acetate. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that...
and lantern slides by the use of an electric arc lightArc LightArc Light is the debut novel by Eric L. Harry, a techno-thriller about limited nuclear war published in 1994 and written in 1991-2.As China and Russia clash in Siberia in June 1999, nuclear missiles strike the United States. The U.S. retaliates against Russia, and World War III begins...
; dark roomsDarkroomA darkroom is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light sensitive photographic materials, including photographic film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century...
... [etc.]."
The club occupied 50 Bromfield Street until 1924.
Early 20th century difficulties
For reasons not yet researched, financial difficulties developed by 1913 and lasted through the 1920s. Membership dropped and meetings were much less frequent.During this period the club was kept alive by the financial and other efforts of Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951), Phineas Hubbard (club president from at least 1908-1913), Horace A. Latimer (1860–1931) and club founder John Thurston. Relinquishing 50 Bromfield Street in 1924, the club met for some years at Boston Young Men's Christian Union
Boston Young Men's Christian Union
Boston Young Men's Christian Union is an historic building at 48 Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts and a liberal Protestant youth association. When Unitarians were excluded from the Boston YMCA they founded the Boston YMCU in 1852...
(YMCU).
Horace A. Latimer bequest (1931)
In 1931, a bequest by club member Horace A. Latimer, an independently wealthy amateur photographer of some renown, reinvigorated the Boston Camera Club. With the funds, the club would soon purchase new headquarters. But first, it moved temporarily to 330 Newbury Street, Boston, which it occupied until 1934.351A Newbury Street (1934–1980)
In 1934 the Boston Camera Club purchased a building at 351A Newbury StreetNewbury Street (Boston)
Newbury Street is located in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It runs roughly east-to-west, from the Boston Public Garden to Massachusetts Ave. The road crosses many major arteries along its path, with an entrance to the Mass Pike westbound at Mass Ave...
, Boston with part of Horace Latimer's bequest. The club occupied three floors, which included a large and small exhibition gallery, library and kitchen.
Membership in the club grew again, reaching 286 members in 1946. In that year, the club decided for tax purposes to sell its 351A building but remain in the building as a lessee.
Growth continued, reaching 555 in 1959 — 492 regular, 51 associate, and 4 honorary members — a level the club maintained for some two decades. Besides post-war prosperity, the growth is attributable to the introduction of 35mm film
135 film
The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...
by Kodak in the 1930s, and the single lens reflex (SLR) 35mm camera by Nikon
Nikon
, also known as just Nikon, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which...
, Pentax
Pentax
Pentax is a brand name used by Hoya Corporation for its medical-related products & services and Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company for cameras, sport optics , etc. Hoya purchased and merged with the Japanese optics company on March 31, 2008. Hoya's Pentax imaging business was sold to Ricoh Company, Ltd...
and others in the 1960s.
Brookline, Massachusetts (1980–present)
In 1980, the 351A Newbury Street building was sold and the club moved from Boston to the adjacent town of Brookline, MassachusettsBrookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
. In 1997 it moved to its second and current Brookline location.
In the 1980s and 1990s membership again declined dramatically, a trend attributable to camera automation (for example autofocus
Autofocus
An autofocus optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication...
and programmed exposure
Exposure (photography)
In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.In photographic jargon, an exposure...
, which reduced the need for camera instruction), consumer video, and other factors.
Since 2000 membership has increased again to about 150 today, due in large part to the club's emphasis on digital photography
Digital photography
Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...
.
Prominent members
Because the Boston Camera Club was founded before amateur photography was widespread, many early members were advanced practitioners, even noted photographers, if often better known in other fields.Prominent club members have included Emma J. Fitz; Maine photographic pioneer Emma D. Sewall (1836–1919); two collaborators of Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
, Prof. Charles R. Cross (1848–1921) and camera shutter
Shutter (photography)
In photography, a shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period of time, for the purpose of exposing photographic film or a light-sensitive electronic sensor to light to capture a permanent image of a scene...
inventor Francis Blake, Jr.
Francis Blake (telephone)
Francis Blake, Jr. was born in Needham, Massachusetts, the son of Caroline Burling and Francis Blake, Sr. and died in Weston, Massachusetts....
(1850–1913); painter Sarah Jane Eddy (1851–1945); astronomers Percival Lowell
Percival Lowell
Percival Lawrence Lowell was a businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death...
(1855–1916) and William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering was an American astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1883.-Work:...
(1858–1938); painter, photographer and Boston arts patron Sarah Choate Sears
Sarah Choate Sears
Sarah Choate Sears was an American art collector, art patron, cultural entrepreneur, artist and photographer.-Early life:Sears, née Sarah Carlisle Choate, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 5 May 1858, the daughter of Charles Francis and Elizabeth Carlisle Choate...
(1858–1935); Wilfred A. French, publisher and editor of Photo-Era; electric car manufacturer George Edward Cabot (1861–1946); photographer and publisher Fred Holland Day (1864–1933); photographic author and publisher Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951); Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial
Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial
Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial is a historic memorial cenotaph sculpture on South Stacy Boulevard, near entrance of Stacy Esplanade in Gloucester, Massachusetts, built in 1925....
sculptor Leonard Craske (1882–1950); photographic educator Adolf Fassbender (1884–1980); painter Emil Gruppé
Emil Gruppe
Emile Albert Gruppé was an American painter born in Rochester, New York to Helen and Charles P. Gruppe. He lived the early years of his life in the Netherlands as his father Charles Paul Gruppe, painted with the Hague school of art and acted as a dealer for the Dutch painters in the US...
(1896–1978); post-Secessionist photographer and watercolorist Eleanor Parke Custis (1897–1983); and inventor of the photographic strobe
Strobe light
A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope...
Harold E. Edgerton
Harold Eugene Edgerton
Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton was a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
(1903–1990).
Exhibitions and salons
The exhibition historyExhibition history
An exhibition history is a listing of exhibitions for an institution, artist or a work of art. Exhibition histories generally include the name of the host institution, the title of the exhibition and the opening and closing dates of the exhibition....
of the Boston Camera Club is long and somewhat complex, with the club participating in four categories of exhibitions.
First, the club has held numerous exhibitions by its members, sometimes ambitious. In the 1890s, it engaged in a noted series of joint exhibitions with other clubs. Until perhaps the mid-20th century, it mounted exhibitions by noted outside photographers. And for half the 20th century it hosted an annual international photographic salon.
Early club exhibitions
Around 1883 the Boston Society of Amateur Photographers, as the club was first known, held its first exhibition at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, an unusually large show of some 700 photographic prints. Annual member group shows were also being held around 1888 and continued for some years.
In 1892 club members exhibited in the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association of Boston, Massachusetts, was "formed for the sole purposes of promoting the mechanic arts and extending the practice of benevolence." Founding members included Paul Revere, Benjamin Russell, and others...
's triennial exhibition.
In the club's seventh and tenth member exhibitions in 1895 and 1898, Emma Sewall received top award. Sarah Jane Eddy and painter and Photo-Secession member Sarah Choate Sears
Sarah Choate Sears
Sarah Choate Sears was an American art collector, art patron, cultural entrepreneur, artist and photographer.-Early life:Sears, née Sarah Carlisle Choate, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 5 May 1858, the daughter of Charles Francis and Elizabeth Carlisle Choate...
were also in the 1898 show.
In 1900 the club held an exhibition by Fred Holland Day. In 1904 it exhibited at Day's Boston studios. Also that year the club helped organize, and exhibited in, a photograph exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
(the St. Louis World's Fair).
Photographic journal Photo-Era called the club's 1910 annual show its "best for many years".
Joint Exhibitions of Photography (1887–1894)
The first outside exhibitions in which the Boston Camera Club participated were the so-called Joint Exhibitions of Photography, sponsored jointly by the Boston Camera Club, Photographic Society of Philadelphia, and Society of Amateur Photographers of New York. The venue rotated annually between the three cities. The Boston club participated in the first seven exhibitions, from 1887 to 1894. At first, all three clubs shared in the preparation for every show.In the first Joint Exhibition in New York in 1887, Joseph Prince Loud (club president 1897-1901) and Horace Latimer received the Boston club's only diplomas. In the third Joint Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1889, Boston was represented by Wilfred A. French, Horace Latimer (the club's only award winner), and William Garrison Reed.
Beginning with the fourth Joint Exhibition in New York in 1891, collaborative preparation ended and each club individually ran the exhibit in the city in which it was held. In the 1891 Exhibition, Latimer exhibited the most prints from the Boston club.
The fifth Joint Exhibition, held at the Boston Art Club
Boston Art Club
The Boston Art Club, Boston, Massachusetts, for nearly 157 years, serves as a nexus for Members and non Members to access the world of Fine Art. Currently more than 250 members maintain an active environment for the support and promotion of these works....
in 1892, included 18 prints by Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
(1864–1946) and 45 by Boston member Francis Blake, Jr.
Francis Blake (telephone)
Francis Blake, Jr. was born in Needham, Massachusetts, the son of Caroline Burling and Francis Blake, Sr. and died in Weston, Massachusetts....
Of the sixth Joint Exhibition in Philadelpha in 1893, Stieglitz said, "It was, without doubt, the finest exhibition of photographs ever held in the United States, and probably was but once excelled in any country."
After the seventh Joint Exhibition in 1894, the Boston Camera Club withdrew from the Joint Exhibitions, citing lack of manpower. Club exhibition activities for the next few years are now unknown. In the club's difficult years of the 1910s and 1920s there were probably no exhibitions.
Boston International Exhibition of Photography (1932–1981)
With the club's difficult years brought to an end by Horace Latimer's 1931 bequest, in 1932 the club launched an annual international competition, the Boston Salon of Photography.In 1953 the salon was renamed the Boston International Exhibition of Photography (although informally it continued to be called the Boston Salon). Also that year, the Frank R. Fraprie Memorial Medal was created in recognition of Fraprie's role, along with Latimer, in helping keep the club alive in the 1910s and 1920s.
With entries heretofore limited to black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
prints, starting in 1954 color slide entries were also accepted. From 1959 color prints were admitted as well. The 43rd and last exhibition, comprising color slides only, was held in 1981 as part of the club's 100th anniversary.
In discontinuing the annual exhibition, the club again cited lack of manpower, this time due to growth. While some hundreds of entries were received annually in the 1930s, the 1981 exhibition required a man-year of labor to process over 3,000 submissions.
Judges in the exhibition's 50 years included Cecil B. Atwater (1886–1981, and club president from 1942 to at least 1944), A. Aubrey Bodine
A. Aubrey Bodine
A. Aubrey Bodine was a photographer for the Baltimore Suns Sunday Sun Magazine, also known as the brown section, for fifty years. Bodine is known for iconic images of Maryland landmarks and traditions. He attended the Maryland Institute College of Art...
(1906–1960), Leonard Craske, Eleanor Parke Custis, Franklin I. Jordan (1876–1956), Adolf Fassbender (1884–1980), L. Whitney Standish (b. 1919), John H. Vondell (d. circa 1967), John W. Doscher (d. after 1971) and Henry F. Weisenburger.
Entrants included Croatian photographer Tošo Dabac
Tošo Dabac
Tošo Dabac was a Croatian photographer of international renown. Although his work was often exhibited and prized abroad, Dabac spent nearly his entire working career in Zagreb...
in 1937; Bodine (who won the Fraprie medal in 1953, 1955 and 1959); 1940s pictorialist Rowena Fruth (1896–1983); Hong Kong photographic prodigy, actor and director Fan Ho (1937–) (who first entered in 1954 at age 17); Wellington Lee (who competed from 1950–1981); and Mexican director José Lorenzo Zakany Almada (who won the Boston Camera Club Medal in 1968).
Guest exhibitors
The club has hosted exhibitions by noted guest photographers. These have included Henry Peach RobinsonHenry Peach Robinson
Henry Peach Robinson was an English pictorialist photographer best known for his pioneering combination printing - joining multiple negatives to form a single image, the precursor to photomontage...
(1830–1901) circa 1890; Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
(1864–1946); 150 photographs by Gertrude Käsebier
Gertrude Käsebier
Gertrude Käsebier was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century. She was known for her evocative images of motherhood, her powerful portraits of Native Americans and her promotion of photography as a career for women.-Early life :Käsebier was born Gertrude...
(1852–1934) in 1896; Frances Benjamin Johnston
Frances Benjamin Johnston
Frances "Fannie" Benjamin Johnston was one of the earliest American female photographers and photojournalists.- Life :...
(1864–1952) in 1899; Clarence White
Clarence White
Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
(1871–1925) in 1899 (organized and hung by Fred Holland Day); and Rudolph Dührkoop (1848–1918).
In 1907 there were exhibitions by C. F. Clarke, Wendell G. Corthell, Frederick Haven Pratt and Civil War photographs by Capt. D. Eldredge.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, U.S. camera clubs engaged in reciprocal exhibitions of each other's work. For example, in 1908 the Boston club exhibited works from the Buffalo Camera Club, the Capitol Camera Club of Washington DC, and the Portland (Maine) Camera Club.
An exhibition by Edward Weston
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
(1886–1958) was held in 1940; Paul Gittings, Sr. in 1950; and work from 1843–1848 of David Octavius Hill
David Octavius Hill
The Scottish painter and arts activist David Octavius Hill collaborated with the engineer and photographer Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847 to pioneer many aspects of photography in Scotland.-Early life:...
(1802–1870) in 1953.
Recent exhibitions
The club's exhibition history for much of the 20th century has not been researched. In the past two decades the club has exhibited in Boston-area venues Boston City HallBoston City Hall
Boston City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of Boston, Massachusetts. Architecturally, it is an example of the brutalist style. It was designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles...
(1993), Griffin Museum of Photography (1997), Hynes Convention Center
Hynes Convention Center
The John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center located in Boston was built in 1988 from a design by architects Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood. It replaced a previous building, also a convention center, regarded as "ungainly." The 1988 design "attempted to relate in scale and materials to its...
(2004) and elsewhere.
Education and programs
The Boston Camera Club has sponsored lectures, educational courses and programs by distinguished members and outsiders.In 1890 club member and camera shutter
Shutter (photography)
In photography, a shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period of time, for the purpose of exposing photographic film or a light-sensitive electronic sensor to light to capture a permanent image of a scene...
pioneer Francis Blake, Jr.
Francis Blake (telephone)
Francis Blake, Jr. was born in Needham, Massachusetts, the son of Caroline Burling and Francis Blake, Sr. and died in Weston, Massachusetts....
read an important paper on shutters to the club. In 1895, member Owen A. Eames presented his Eames Animatoscope, an early motion picture device. In 1897, Friedrich von Voigtländer, head of the Austrian optical firm
Voigtländer
Voigtländer is an optical company founded by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna in 1756 and is thus the oldest name in cameras. It produced the Petzval photographic lens in 1840, and the world's first all-metal daguerrotype camera in 1841, also bringing out plate cameras shortly afterwards...
, spoke to the club. In 1904, prominent photographer Fred Holland Day presented the paper for which he was well known, "Is Photography a Fine Art?"
There were numerous other lecturers in the club's early years.
Records of club speakers for the mid-20th century have not been studied. Late 20th century presenters included Marie Cosindas
Marie Cosindas
Marie Cosindas is an American photographer. She is best known for her evocative still life and colour portraits.-Biography:...
(1980s), John Sexton
John Sexton (photographer)
John Sexton is an American fine art photographer who specializes in black and white photographs.-Life:John Sexton was born in 1953. He was educated at Cypress College and Chapman University .-Career:Sexton worked for Ansel Adams from 1979 to 1984 , first as Technical and Photographic...
(1994) and Frans Lanting
Frans Lanting
Frans Lanting, is a Dutch photographer specializing in wildlife photography.Lanting was born in Rotterdam and later emigrated to the United States after being educated in the Netherlands. He now lives in Santa Cruz, California and operates a studio and gallery, as well as a stock photography...
(1997).
Boston-area professionals such as staff photographers of The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
and instructors in Boston's photography colleges have long been regular club presenters and competition judges.
Other activities
Around 1888 the club undertook the Old Boston project, in which it "made a survey of buildings and farms for local archives." The project proved valuable, as many of the buildings photographed no longer exist.During the 1890s club members pursued stereoscopy
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
. Lantern slides, the forerunner of 20th century color slides, were a popular medium for visual presentation. The club also undertook field trips, as it does today.
In the 1940s the club was active in "entertainment and instruction of disabled veterans of World War II ... sponsor[ing] a camera club at one of the large Army convalescent hospitals nearby".
In the 1950s and 1960s the club had a movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
group and owned a Bell & Howell
Böwe Bell & Howell
Bell & Howell is a U.S.-based former manufacturer of motion picture machinery, founded as Bell & Howell in 1907 by two projectionists, and headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company merged with Böwe Systec Inc...
movie projector.
Member achievements
A number of Boston Camera Club members are known for their photographic endeavors.Inventor and club vice president Francis Blake, Jr.
Francis Blake (telephone)
Francis Blake, Jr. was born in Needham, Massachusetts, the son of Caroline Burling and Francis Blake, Sr. and died in Weston, Massachusetts....
(1850–1913) whose 1877 microphone improved telephone communication was a camera shutter pioneer who achieved exposure times of 1/2,000 second by 1890.
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering was an American astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1883.-Work:...
(1858–1938), who discovered Saturn's moon Phoebe
Phoebe (moon)
Phoebe is an irregular satellite of Saturn. It was discovered by William Henry Pickering on 17 March 1899 from photographic plates that had been taken starting on 16 August 1898 at the Boyden Observatory near Arequipa, Peru, by DeLisle Stewart...
and advanced the cause of women in astronomy, was a noted astrophotographer
Astrophotography
Astrophotography is a specialized type of photography that entails recording images of astronomical objects and large areas of the night sky. The first photographs of an astronomical object were taken in the 1840s, but it was not until the late 19th century that advances in technology allowed for...
.
Sarah Choate Sears
Sarah Choate Sears
Sarah Choate Sears was an American art collector, art patron, cultural entrepreneur, artist and photographer.-Early life:Sears, née Sarah Carlisle Choate, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 5 May 1858, the daughter of Charles Francis and Elizabeth Carlisle Choate...
(1858–1935) was named a Member of the Photo-Secession
Photo-Secession
The Photo-Secession was an early 20th century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular. A group of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz and F...
by Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
. In 1899 she had a solo exhibition at the club that included a portrait of Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".-Biography:...
, and showed at the second Boston Arts and Crafts Exhibition.
Three club members were well-known authors and publishers. The club's first secretary and treasurer, Wilfred A. French, was editor and publisher of Photo-Era. Frank Roy Fraprie (1874–1951), one of the best-known photographic publishers in the U.S., was a prolific author. Franklin I. "Pop" Jordan (1876–1956) was a photographic author and editor.
Adolf "Papa" Fassbender (1884–1980), the German-born New York educator called a "one-man photographic institution", helped train thousands in photography over a career of 72 years.
In 1896 a print by Horace Latimer (1860–1931) was in an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. Two photographs by Latimer were published in Camera Notes
Camera Notes
Camera Notes was a photographic journal published by the Camera Club of New York from 1897 to 1903. It was edited for most of that time by photographer Alfred Stieglitz and was considered the most significant American photography journal of its time...
, the official publication of The Camera Club of New York
The Camera Club of New York
Since 1884, The Camera Club of New York has been a forum to explore photography. Though the Club was created by well-to-do 'gentlemen' photography enthusiasts seeking a refuge from the mass popularization of the medium in the 1880s, it accepted its first woman as a member, Miss Elizabeth A...
.
In 1939 Arthur Hammond (1880–1962) won top prize from organizers of the New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
for his photo of the Fair's Trylon and Perisphere.
Honorary members
The club recognizes through honorary life membership the accomplishments of noted Boston-area photographers.Late honorary members include late-19th century art lecturer Antonie Stölle and Cape Ann, Massachusetts artist, photographer and travel writer Samuel V. Chamberlain (1895–1975).
Inventor of the photographic strobe
Strobe light
A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope...
Harold E. "Doc" Edgerton
Harold Eugene Edgerton
Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton was a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
(1903–1990) took the well-known Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine photographs of a bullet penetrating an apple and an impact crown of milk droplets. Less known are his night aerial strobe work in World War II, co-founding of defense contractor EG&G
EG&G
EG&G, formally known as Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier, Inc., is a United States national defense contractor and provider of management and technical services. The company was involved in contracting services to the United States government during World War II, and conducted weapons research and...
, and undersea explorations with Jacques Cousteau.
Arthur Griffin (1903–2001) was the best-known photographer of New England scenes in the mid-20th century. H. Bradford Washburn, Jr.
Bradford Washburn
Henry Bradford Washburn, Jr. was an American explorer, mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer. He established the Boston Museum of Science, served as its director from 1939–1980, and from 1985 until his death served as its Honorary Director .Washburn is especially noted for exploits in four...
(1910–2007) was a noted mountaineer, aerial photographer and founder of the Boston Museum of Science.
Current honorary member Lou Jones (1945–) is a Boston-based commercial, Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
and jazz photographer, photojournalist
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
and educator whose books include Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row (1996).
Photographic societies
Club members Cecil B. Atwater, Eleanor Parke Custis, John W. Doscher, Adolf Fassbender, Rowena Fruth, Barbara Green, Arthur Hammond, Franklin I. Jordan, Charles B. Phelps, Jr. (1891–1949), L. Whitney Standish, John H. Vondell, Edmund A. Woodle (1918–2007) and Richard Yee have been Fellows of the Photographic Society of AmericaPhotographic Society of America
The Photographic Society of America is one of the largest, non-profit organization of its kind. Despite its name it is an International organisation open to anyone with an interest in photography. Established in 1934, it has expanded to include members of over 70 countries. The Society includes...
(FPSA). Frank Fraprie and Allen G. Stimson (d. 1996) were Honorary Fellows.
Atwater, Doscher, Fassbender, Green, Hammond, Jordan and Yee have been Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society
Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society is the world's oldest national photographic society. It was founded in London, United Kingdom in 1853 as The Photographic Society of London with the objective of promoting the Art and Science of Photography...
(FRPS) of Great Britain. Fraprie was Honorary Fellow.
Roydon (Roy) Burke (1901–1993) was, and Henry F. Weisenburger is, a Master Member of the New England Camera Club Council (NECCC).
As professional photographers, Arthur Griffin and Lou Jones have belonged to such groups as the American Society of Media Photographers
American Society of Media Photographers
The American Society of Media Photographers, abbreviated ASMP, is a trade association of professional photographers, including many photojournalists but also experts in architectural, underwater, culinary and advertising photography and other specialties as well...
(Griffin charter member, Jones board of directors).
Museum holdings
The U.S. Library of CongressLibrary of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
has major holdings of work of two Boston Camera Club members. "Photographs of middle class life in Boston, 1890s-1910s" is a collection of 523 photographs by Charles Henry Currier. The Library also holds the largest share of photographs of Fred Holland Day.
There are substantial institutional holdings of Francis Blake, Jr., Eleanor Parke Custis, Harold E. Edgerton, Adolf Fassbender, Arthur Griffin (by his Griffin Museum of Photography), Emil Gruppé
Emil Gruppe
Emile Albert Gruppé was an American painter born in Rochester, New York to Helen and Charles P. Gruppe. He lived the early years of his life in the Netherlands as his father Charles Paul Gruppe, painted with the Hague school of art and acted as a dealer for the Dutch painters in the US...
, L. Whitney Standish, H. Bradford Washburn
Bradford Washburn
Henry Bradford Washburn, Jr. was an American explorer, mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer. He established the Boston Museum of Science, served as its director from 1939–1980, and from 1985 until his death served as its Honorary Director .Washburn is especially noted for exploits in four...
, and others.
Today
As it has for most of its existence, the Boston Camera Club meets weekly. Meetings are held at its 1773 Beacon Street, Brookline, Massachusetts headquarters every Tuesday evening from September to June. Additional Thursday meetings are held elsewhere. Guests are welcome free of charge.Activities range from beginner to advanced, and comprise digital photography
Digital photography
Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...
, education, print competitions (both digital and darkroom
Darkroom
A darkroom is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light sensitive photographic materials, including photographic film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century...
), live portrait shoots and field trips. Outside speakers and competition judges are frequently invited.
The club communicates through its Web site and newsletter, The Reflector, launched in 1938 and published electronically.
The Boston Camera Club is a member of the New England Camera Club Council (NECCC) and Photographic Society of America
Photographic Society of America
The Photographic Society of America is one of the largest, non-profit organization of its kind. Despite its name it is an International organisation open to anyone with an interest in photography. Established in 1934, it has expanded to include members of over 70 countries. The Society includes...
(PSA), through both of which it engages in inter-club competition.
The Boston Camera Club's sister club is the Cairns Photographic Society, Queensland, Australia, with which it holds competitions and other activities.
Boston Camera Club publications and records
- Boston Camera Club. Records. Volume 1, 1881–1896. Volume 2, 1897–1929, two paginations. Volume 3, 1929–1942. [Etc.] Boston Athenaeum. Boston MA.
- Boston Camera Club. Notice of First Meeting. February 3, 1887.
- Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Religious, etc. Corporations / Certificate of Organization under Massachusetts Public Statutes Chapter 115, Section 4, etc. February 25, 1887.
- Third Annual Joint Exhibition of Photographs. The Society of Amateur Photographers of New York, The Photographic Society of Philadelphia, Boston Camera Club. 1889.
- Catalogue of Exhibits at the Fifth Annual Joint Exhibition of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, Society of Amateur Photographers of New York and the Boston Camera Club at the Boston Camera Club, May 2 to May 7, 1892.
- Boston Camera Club. Catalogue: Photographs: Boston Camera-Club, by the Courtesy of the Boston Art Club at Their Galleries. Circa 1892. (Fifth annual exhibition of Photographic Society of Philadelphia, Society of Amateur Photographers of New York, and BCC.) Harvard University. Fine Arts Library.
- Sixth Annual Exhibition. Photographic Society of Philadelphia, Society of Amateur Photographers of New York, Boston Camera Club, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 1893.
- Catalogue of the Seventh Annual Competitive Exhibition by Members of the Boston Camera Club: At Their Club-rooms, 50 Bromfield Street, Boston, April, 1895.
- Boston Camera Club. Constitution, By-Laws and Rules. 1896.
- Boston Camera Club. Exhibition catalog and booklet. 1900.
- The Year Book. 1900. (Officers, members, club rules, diagram of club rooms.) Smithsonian Institution. Archives of American Art. Microfilm reel 4858, frames 517-525.
- Catalogue of the Third (First International) Salon. Boston Art Club; Boston Camera Club. 1934.
- Boston Camera Club. The Reflector (newsletter). Various issues (incomplete). First issue. Volume 1. February 1938.
- Boston Salon of Photography (from 1953 on called Boston International Exhibition of Photography). Various catalogs. [Incomplete]. 12th Salon 1943 through 43rd Exhibition 1981. Collection Boston Camera Club.
Further reading
- "New Dark Room for Boston Camera Club". Boston Daily Globe. October 7, 1890. p. 4.
- "Caught from the Sun: Marvellous Work in Photography by the Members of the Boston Camera Club at Their Exhibition". Boston Daily Globe. January 7, 1892. p. 10.
- Catherine Weed Barnes. "The Boston Fifth Annual Joint Exhibition". The American Amateur Photographer. Volume 4, Number 6. June 1892. p. 259-264.
- Benjamin Kimball. "The Boston Camera Club". New England Magazine. 1893. p. 185-205.
- Clark's Boston Blue Book. Edward E. Clark. Boston. Published 1878–1937. The 1895–1903 editions list Boston Camera Club officers, members and honorary members.
- "Studies in Classic Poses: Strong Exhibition of Photos Made at the Boston Camera Club Rooms". Boston Daily Globe. March 9, 1898. p. 7.
- Wilfred A. French. "The Pictorial Attractions of Boston". Photo-Era. Volume 25, Number 2. August 1910. p. 64-71, 94-95.
- "Mr. Latimer Expresses His Views Somewhat at Length". Pictorial Photography in America, 1921. Pictorial Photographers Association. 1920. p. 12-13.
- Whit Hillyer. "Six Prints from Boston: Progressive Schedules Crowded with Events at the Back Bay Clubhouse Add to the Impressive Record of the Boston Camera Club's Sixty-five Year History". ("American Camera Clubs", Number 13). Popular Photography. March 1946. p. 40-41, 154. With photos by club members Harold Elliot, Frank R. Fraprie, Arthur Hammond, H. B. Hills, Frankiln I. Jordan, Barbara Standish. The club's 351A Newbury Street building was in the Back Bay section of Boston.
- Peter Pollack. The Picture History of Photography: From the Earliest Beginnings to the Present Day. Abrams, New York. 1958.
- Elizabeth F. Cleveland and Daniel D. R. Charbonnet (club president, 1980–1982). "Honoring Camera Clubs, Number 14: Boston Camera Club Centennial". Photographic Society of America Journal (PSA Journal). Volume 47, Number 10. October 1981. p. 32.
External links
- Boston Camera Club official website
- Boston Camera Club on Flickr